As many as 90,000 children may cross into the United States this year, according to U.S. government estimates. They are mainly from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, where gang violence has led them to make dangerous journeys to escape.
The United States is facing budget strains over the cost of providing food, shelter and medical care for the children, and President Barack Obama has said most of the children will be sent home.
But the influx of children has created the largest ever backlog in immigration courts. In the first half of the year, there were 366,724 pending cases, the highest on record, according to Justice Department data.
As of March, the average wait time for a case was 578 days, according to Justice Department records obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data-gathering organization.